[HN Gopher] Template for Impactful Ideas
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       Template for Impactful Ideas
        
       Author : KentBeck
       Score  : 59 points
       Date   : 2023-08-07 14:06 UTC (1 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (tidyfirst.substack.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (tidyfirst.substack.com)
        
       | more_corn wrote:
       | Pro tip when offering pro tips (stolen from Andrew Carnegie)
       | begin by telling me why I should listen to your pro tip.
       | 
       | Pretend I've never hear of you and don't know if you've ever
       | accomplished anything meaningful. Assume that I'll take one look,
       | not recognize your name and go away unless you give me a reason
       | to stay.
        
         | KentBeck wrote:
         | Why should I listen to you?
         | 
         | Seriously, thank you for that feedback. While the current
         | generation of developers has heard of my work, they don't
         | necessarily associate it with me. Establishing credibility
         | would amplify what I say.
        
         | onco wrote:
         | Different strokes for different folks. Kent Beck is a very
         | well-known programmer and likely needs no introduction. If he
         | started every article on his personal blog regaling readers
         | with his accomplishments, it might not be received as well as
         | you suggest.
        
           | bbor wrote:
           | Plus he does do this eventually - shouting out JUnit and
           | Extreme Programming. I didn't know who he was, tbf
        
         | janalsncm wrote:
         | A lot of advice from successful people is tainted by
         | survivorship bias. So the fact that the advice comes from a
         | successful person isn't sufficient to determine that it's good
         | advice.
         | 
         | Maybe we should demand that all advice undergo a large sample
         | size double-blind study before it reaches our eyeballs. Only
         | those pieces of advice with p values under 5% are fit for
         | consumption.
        
       | [deleted]
        
       | andsoitis wrote:
       | > Before I go into detail, let me first say that one difference
       | between success and failure turning an idea into impact is work.
       | Lots and lots of work.
       | 
       | ... because ideas don't execute themselves
        
         | layer8 wrote:
         | Hence arguably "impactful ideas" is a misnomer here, because
         | it's rarely the ideas themselves that are impactful (and you
         | are rarely the first to have them), but what you make based on
         | them.
        
           | bbor wrote:
           | Idk I'd disagree - see the part about "when someone repeats
           | my idea to someone else with referencing me, I've won". There
           | is indeed a lot of work involved, but the author is trying to
           | create memetic value here, not some software or particular
           | product. Imo.
        
       | podgorniy wrote:
       | I'm sad that people don't do much of public reflection on how
       | they managed to get where they are (how they moved things where
       | these things are). Contrary they make up appealing stories (which
       | sometimes becomes a part of idea becoming impactful) hiding real
       | mechanics. I appreciate your kind of openess. Thanks for sharing.
       | What you described is aligned with my observations and I hope it
       | will save some time of rediscovering things which work. For
       | example I could not accept repeating, pitching same idea again
       | and again (though some people say that repetition is what works).
       | After reading about your experience it will be easier for me to
       | get there.
        
       | shove wrote:
       | I can tell this guy walks the walk because midway through the
       | essay I went, "Haha nice; he's doing it right now--that's so
       | meta" and then sure enough the conclusion bore this out.
        
       | tikkun wrote:
       | Very helpful - thank you!
       | 
       | Others in the comments: I also like this post from the OP -
       | https://medium.com/@kentbeck_7670/fast-slow-in-3x-explore-ex...
        
       | bzmrgonz wrote:
       | Step 1: put your content behind a paywall!!
        
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       (page generated 2023-08-08 23:02 UTC)